[Miyabigaoka] Meido no Hitsuji

[Apollymi]

At the Meido no Hitsuji, a group of young women dressed in various degrees of maid wear seemed to be lined up and waiting. And peppered in among this group today were a few gentlemen as well, not that this would likely matter to the Sky King. In fact, there were still two recognizable faces in the establishment. Though one figured she wasn't being looked for as she now lived in the same house as the Sky King and if he needed to see her he could at any point during his day. Besides that little fact she was busying herself with a table of young men who seemed to like her company playing rock, paper, scissors. The other a rather busty tanned redhead seemed to be stunned that he'd appeared twice in a twenty four hour time period. She would have commented on this, if protocol didn't demand a very specific greeting from all the free maids present. "Okaerinasaimase, goshujinsama!~" she chimed, all while her overprotective slightly sinister manager lurked in the background, seemingly satisfied they had a new regular customer.

[Bloodedge]

Shoichi had all but forgotten the rather interesting method of customer-greeting this facility had, but upon receiving it, he rubbed the back of his head and grinned. "Tadaima," he said, stepping forward to be directly inline with the redhead he sought. He was quite sure she knew he had come for her again, as per his statement of the previous day, but it was unlikely that all the others would assume such a thing. "You get first draft again. Go figure~"

[Apollymi]

The redhead was indeed aware that he had come to see her. She wondered if he would simply give up this whole random idea he had about her riding for his team, after all it was nothing she was interested in. But, she was at work, so she put on her best smile and escorted him to his seat while all the others left seemed to go back to their jobs while they waited for the next customer to enter. "You know, if you keep coming here like that... they will eventually assume you're stalking me... and make me look busy whenever ya' get here.~" she mentioned ever so casually. Once they reached the booth she intended to have him seated at she handed him a menu and smiled at him. "So, how can I serve you today, goshujinsama?" she asked, wanting to skip the recruitment speech entirely but somehow having the feeling that this simply wasn't possible.

[Bloodedge]

Without much of a wait at all, Shoichi was brought to a table by the red-haired maid/waitress. He took a seat, but held out his hand to reject the menu when it was offered. "Three Maid Parfaits. One for the boss this time," he said. On his previous visit, the manager had been very observant of the interaction he was having with this woman, and it was his intention to avoid making trouble for anyone if at all possible. With what he'd learned from the extra time he spent here with Mikasa, he thought to perhaps provide a small distraction for the manager this time around. "And nobody's gonna think I'm stalking you. If they did, I'm pretty sure they'd think you were fine with it, since you didn't have me taken out for harassment."

[Apollymi]

"Three?!" the woman said seemingly surprised. But she supposed she could see why such a thing was necessary, even so, it would mean a bit of dedication from the young woman herself so she simply bowed while taking the menu away. "Well, that is partially true, but... paying customers unless they are proven dangerous are still paying customers. They would try and busy you with someone else while getting you to spend your money, before they turned you away completely~" she said. And with that she headed off. Soon enough she'd be seen behind the bar crafting three of her maid special parfaits. It took her a few minutes but once she was done she took one over to her manager behind the bar, telling him that it was from the young man she was with presently. A small smirk came to the manager's face before he disappeared back to his office to have his dessert which he secretly loved in peace.

Soon after, Akemi was back at the table giving Shoichi his dessert with a long spoon and taking a seat across from him and stirring hers with an identical spoon. "So, you came back. Am I to assume you are still singing the same song?" she asked of him seeming more than ready to get this conversation over with.

[Bloodedge]

Akemi's initial shock at his request was about what Shoichi expected, but he was certain she would see his reasoning. And indeed, that seemed to be the case. The Sky King waited around for the couple of minutes it took Akemi to return with two of the parfaits, and when his was placed in front of him, he immediately began stirring it. "Itadakimasu~" he said prior to taking the first bite. This Gem Queen was eager to get down to business, apparently. This was obviously due to a distaste for the subject at hand, but Shoichi was sure he would change that eventually. "Yep. Well, besides the sweet tooth. I dig this parfait about as much as I dig the idea of you being in White Spell. So... What's keepin' ya' from joining up?"

[Apollymi]

An eye roll from this red haired woman was likely expected. Though she was busy enjoying her mini-break and the snack she got for free as well. When the Sky King named his team, her brows drew together. "That team that was just named yesterday and ranked up immediately taking out that A-ranked team the Orient Express that was you?" she said. Akemi knew a lot about this situation, but that was only because of how she'd spent the previous evening, in the presence of her two younger brothers. Moving right along, she had to further explain herself so she took her first bite and used the time to gather her thoughts. "Look, like I said, I have my own team. I run my own team... I can't abandon ship just 'cause someone asks me to. Besides, I told ya' I'm not interested in what you stand for... I am not gonna be on a team that doesn't intend to win. There is no profit in that." she mentioned. If one hadn't already figured it out, the Gem Queen before them was a bit about the money, besides that her whole team was built around the parts trade, she had no intention of going in, if she couldn't reap parts or make a profit off of what was taken.

Meanwhile in his office, the dapper man known as Waka had closed the door behind him and sat rather properly at his desk. His legs crossed at the ankle as he pulled himself forward in his swivel chair as he stared upon the delight that was the Maid Parfait. Each one of these was made especially by a particular maid of the cafe to her own or his own specific tastes. Each showed the personality of its creator, and above all things this was what the man Waka enjoyed above all things. He took a singular deep breath as he began to stir the dessert, taking in the delicate bouquet across his palate. Once he was satisfied he would pull the spoon up from the dish and relish in a single bite. When he did the'd leave the spoon backwards in his mouth as a single moan of happiness escaped his mouth. "Mmmmm~"

[Bloodedge]

"Yep, that's us. I had to improvise a bit since you didn't join yesterday, but I ran into a couple of girls who joined up when I left here. They're pretty fun to hang out with," he said as his spoon casually drifted around within his parfait. There was a certain amount of distaste he was receiving from this woman about his offer to have her join White Spell, and it mostly seemed to be related to the lack of profit. Shoichi found this interesting. Perhaps there was more reason she could be made to see in this moment, so he spoke more as he stared into his dessert with the Over-Cross Twinkle Eye of a Brain Charger. "Yare yare. I don't like being like this. There's more profit than you would get by not joining. White Spell. Chimera. Vongola. Black Hand. We're all participating in this war. Any one of us could destroy you and your team as a warm-up. What's worse is, we would, because a team like yours is exactly what we're here to stop this time. I like you... and I think you could be good... but if we have to be enemies in a Parts War, I'll crush you without a second thought, and you'll never even think about joining the Parts War again."

[Apollymi]

"Good. I'm glad you filled out your team, it's always nice to have fun people around." the woman said, and this was a completely genuine statement. She was happy he'd been able to make his team work without her, and figured because of this, he would continue to make this happen. Regardless, it seemed that a change would be happening in the Sky King, that she'd never rightly witnessed before. And with it occurring right in front of her she saw the change in his eye which was something completely other than what she'd witnessed from anyone else. Moreover his attitude and everything about the way he spoke to her changed in light of this and it was completely baffling. "What?! I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before... what kind of weird shit..." she mentioned while she tried to pull herself together and seemed to be failing at.

She'd completely stopped eating just to stare at the Sky King in front of her, as he apparently made the point that the Parts War could be profitable to her on his side. Beyond that, he seemed to be under the assumption that his small team and the others which were apparently also run by members of the Black Order seemed to want to completely do away with a team like hers for the simple reason of its existence. "Sorry, I had to get myself together. But really? So, you and your friends don't like what my team does, so it's just on you to wipe us out... that's a bit fucked up. No way around it. I don't have to agree with anything you say, but it's a bit fascist to try to shove your agenda on to everyone else. Eliminating teams 'cause you have the power to... you're taking advantage... and in that case have no moral ground to stand on. We operate now within the normal rules of the parts war. No more no less. We don't have to be nice or good to make our way... and that's our right, yeah? Not just one road to the sky or the kind of bullshit dreams you guys feed your masses. I'm not on board with such a dream... no other way around it." she finished up and then went back to eating. It was almost absurd to her that anyone would bother stopping any other group from doing anything so long as they didn't have to cross paths. And as far as she was concerned what she wanted wouldn't put her into anything with anyone from the Black Order at all. And while this entire conversation happened, the manager would be eating his parfait, enjoying every single bit of it.

[Bloodedge]

"So that's the route you're going to take, huh?" Shoichi questioned when the woman's speech came to an end. "A bunch of people battling for the Sky Regalia is fine, but joining up to stop people who want the Sky Regalia because it's the Sky Regalia, is immoral? What would someone like that do once they had it? Infinite power over all technology... You could own the world if you wanted. Take over nuclear arms across the globe, shut down anyone with the power to stop you... no. At that point, no one but another Sky King even has the power to stop you. But a real Sky King doesn't want that power. I'm not feeding dreams to you or anyone else, but there is only one road to the Sky... up. Only someone who realizes that can bond with the Trophaeum, but that doesn't stop everyone else from getting the power to take that chance away by trying to drag the sky down to them. You probably don't even know what it's like to go that far. To have people around you dying over the craze for power that the Parts War breeds." In the midst of his speech, Shoichi stopped stirring the parfait before him. Whatever personality had taken hold of his body was doing so in an incredible way, and yet there seemed to be traces of the young man's own ideals remaining deep within. Or perhaps, these were simply great similarities. "So many people born in the outside world want the power. But then, there's us... we have the power, and we're just stuck holding onto it for life. Maybe that is fascist, but... being the Sky King is almost like being a god. What would a greedy god be like?"